Some time ago, I found this online about Georgia's abortion ban. It's a study in how the law was crafted, the arguments that were had around it, the debates, the sheer disregard for the medical community. Read it if you can. It's *how* this garbage becomes law. It's frightening.
From the article: "Credible scientific sources such as the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) were often misrepresented; reference to ACOG was sometimes coupled with falsehoods or otherwise inaccurate information. Supporters of HB 481 confounded existing medical science with their own new terminology such as “pregnancy viability” and “early infant” – vocabulary not defined or used within the field of medicine. For example, the term “pregnancy viability” does not appear in ACOG guidelines nor is it defined, while the term non-viable pregnancy does exist in the medical literatureCitation26; the terms “unborn child” and “early infant” are not in keeping with obstetric standards describing fetal development.Citation36"
I don't dare read it but I do know that doctors are educated, in science, and that science and education are two of the things that conservatives strongly oppose. So to them OBGYNs are the "enemy" and so it's not surprising.
Science and education are antithetical to the Word of God that only they coincidentally happen to have the power to speak for. If it were up to them, all women would be in a Quiverfull cult and just squat down in the kitchen every couple years to give birth. The way God commanded them to.
I just started reading it and it's already making me want to throw my phone at the wall.
"...an attempt to create a new class of persons – fetuses in utero – entitled to legal protection; and arguments to expand state protections for fetuses as a matter of state sovereignty and rights."
See. Like I pointed out, women are public property to these people. Touches on the theme from that salon article Jessica posted a while back on the historical precedent of equating women to land.
I read that Salon article last time you recommended it to me. It's great. Enlightening. It helps me understand how women vote against their own self interest. The article above that I posted really outs the cavalier nature of how they crafted HB 481. Yeah they just don't even give a thought to the woman. There's no debate about us. We don't exist.
Mar 30, 2023·edited Mar 30, 2023Liked by Jessica Valenti
Joy Reid and Chris Hayes had good shows on MSNBC tonight. They led with Idaho's proposed legislation. Reid had on Melissa Murray, a law prof from NYU. She's been on before. She was saying what we've been fearing - that all these laws are meant to establish fetal personhood. That's what they're after. And she seemed to think a national ban (at fertilization, I think) was a serious possibility. It was depressing.
I think a better way to put it is that fetuses don't have special privileges to other people's bodies that literally no one else has. Whether it has "personhood" is irrelevant. If anything, it makes the 13th amendment case to say that it is.
Well yes that would be more specific. My thought was they want to establish 'personhood' because that would presumably be the easiest shortcut to invalidating every law in pro-choice states protecting abortion rights, so I was keeping it simple. But yeah more specific is better.
But how would it invalidate other states laws? Even if it is a person, the state is literally saying women are chattel to their fetuses. It violates 13a.
Like I said yesterday, we need to start calling it fetal coverture because it's a legal fiction they invented to make women constitutionally invisible. Using the term fetal personhood gives it credibility. If fetuses have personhood, they're literally saying women are their chattel which directly violates the 13th amendment. But since fetuses are so-called "wards of the state," they're saying women are even less than chattel. They're public property.
Yes. We are instantly subjugated at conception. Instantly. Another question here with fetal personhood is the Census. Georgia would allow 6-week embryo counted on the Census. Now I know it's every 10 years but that raises the question of inequality between red and blue states in their population counts and resources.
She also said something that I thought right when Roe fell -- there's no way that the fanatical right's "morality" will stop at state borders. They won't be satisfied with no abortion in WV but abortion in NJ. It was never about state's rights. That's a stepping stone argument. What on earth are our recourses? Expand the court? Move to NZ? Jessica you are doing heroic work!
The first line of defense is not to allow Republicans to get control outside of their red states. If there's another Republican president anytime soon the only option becomes blue states seceding.
Just read the Psychology Today piece. Of course, it's great. It's full of thoughtful, sane, researched, sourced, and studied material. Sadly it struck me as an intellectual trying to talk sense into a bully. I feel like it's too late. The crazy horse has left the barn. If these "local political leaders" feel no guilt about forcing a rape victim to give birth, you can forget them caring about the psychological harm on women who weren't raped.
The hope is that reasoned and respected pieces like this can encourage the healthcare community to get stronger in mounting pushback against this subjugation.
Yes, I think the challenge is we need to get people who basically agree with us (especially when the facts are laid out in front of them) to care more.
i suspect that the Republican game plan is really about compelling White Women to bear white children but they can't figure out how to say that out loud.
what if we pro-choice multi-colored women call them on it.
That is exactly what they're trying to do. Which is funny because white women are the least likely to get abortions who have higher usage of LTCs because of higher rates of insurance. If anything, it will just increase our childlessness rates even more. I'm definitely not gonna be having any white babies because of this fascist bull shit. My partner is brown anyway.
North Carolina lawmakers are also trying to change the state Senate, and end 1 person, 1 vote. Two counties, regardless of population, would elect a Senator. So Wake and Durham County could have a single vote in the NC Senate.
North Carolina isn't THAT red; it's not Tennessee. Cooper would veto this legislation if it goes anywhere, and Republicans would be on record that this is their vision for the state. Register and turn out some new voters, flip a few others, and statewide elections could turn out differently. So why do it? Why are Republican legislators more afraid of the crazies than they are the rest of us? I really think that's what it comes down to. We have to do whatever is necessary to inspire fear. Playing nice doesn't work.
Maybe, but money is only important insofar as it keeps you in office (unless we're alleging direct payoffs), so the question is still what's the greatest threat to losing office. That they might fund a challenger?
I'm really surprised the stranglehold anti-abortion has over Republicans. They are def terrified of them. I had no idea it was this bad that they're willing to commit political suicide to ram these policies through.
But that’s the “joy” of our wonderful electoral system. They don’t have to win a majority of the popular vote—not even close, in fact. Win the red states and that’s all they need.
They do have to be close, to elect a president. Not quite as close for the House (depending on how much the maps get mucked up by 2024), and they have a larger margin of error for the Senate. But even then if Democrats were to consistently win nationally by six or seven points we'd have the trifecta. That's the tragedy; Republicans have accomplished all of this by the skin of their teeth.
They're working to corrupt and control the electoral process, so they won't ever lose a vote, showing once again what b.s. it was when the "Supreme" Court said they were "sending abortion back to the states" so the people could decide. Ha! That's also why it's just dangerous to think we can rely on elections. It was political resistance that got us the right to abortion, and that's what it will take to regain it.
It's not impossible; pro-choice voters just need to stop voting Republican, or they need to support pro-choice primary challengers. If that sounds ridiculous it's because it makes no sense for someone who's pro-choice to vote Republican in the first place. But they must be. Mike DeWine won Ohio by 25 points, but there'd be no point in a referendum there if we thought we were going to lose by 25 points. If these people continue to vote Republican then they really don't care about being pro-choice.
Same here. But I think for most of them the incentives are different. Most of them have safe seats and have learned the only political threat comes from more extreme primary challengers. It's bad for their party as a whole but that doesn't concern them. It would be even worse for them but for the features of our system that help conservatives (2 senators to each state, and single-member districts when geography helps their voters). Long run they're fucked. But we have to get there first before we have an actual, violent, civil war.
From that article on anti-abortion centers in Illinois:
"...the patient believed the center would also provide prenatal care.
“She received no prenatal care services throughout the duration of her pregnancy,” Swartzendruber said. “In fact, when she went to deliver, she drove herself to the emergency room.”
This is unbelievably enraging. This woman or her baby could have died. How the fuck does this even happen? They just thought they'd lead her on this whole time in case she got an abortion eight months into her pregnancy? And they didn't think to tell her at any point to go to a real doctor? What in the fuck is wrong with these people?
I live in NC and I am so sick to my stomach about this. I'm in my mid 40's and I have a 4 year old daughter - I had her late in life because it took me years to get pregnant. I can't even imagine right now if I were trying to get pregnant with the risks of pregnancy and miscarriages in a state with a total abortion ban. I'm also so terrified for my daughter's future.
Yeah I'll be forty next year and I was on the fence about having kids. Definitely not having them now. A third of millennials evidently don't have children and presumably Gen z is on track to make a similar decision as a consequence of psychopathic boomer policies that wrecked the economy. This isn't sustainable for the human race let alone civilization. But as long as they insist on weaponizing motherhood as a justice system, I don't see how that will change in the near future.
I made a TikTok the other day about how many women are deciding to forgo having kids because of the abortion bans and I cannot tell you how many comments I got - just story after story of people saying NOPE not gonna do it
I am in my 70’s and vote for liberals and when younger, worked for civil rights, including the right you have lost. How do you think Roe came about in the first place?
I have raised children who carry those beliefs, including an attorney who helps trans people.
I am doing what I can now, writing and donating to progressives. Older people are as diverse a group as any other. Please don’t stereotype us, getting old is hard enough.
My mother is in her 70s and she's more silent gen. I think your generation is more reasonable than the boomers. They came of reproductive age when Roe became law and then rescinded it as soon as they came into power after they exercised their rights. Silent gen still holds the collective memory of a dark time before reproductive rights.
Again, making assumptions about people based on age or other demographics is careless. For example, Ron Desantis is 42ish. Are all 42 year olds like minded?
And what, euthanize us useless boomers? 60 year old here & my friends and I are progressives who use our votes, volunteer time, and, yes, our money for progressive causes. We brought up our millennial kids to be progressive. Go to any progressive march or protest in DC and you’ll see a lot of us. Snarky attacks based on broad stereotypes are not useful.
I guess I should have been more specific I was referring to the owning class though they're predominantly 60 and over. 99% of boomers aren't included in this class. Boomers are mainly responsible for the rise of the extreme right beginning in the Reagan years but I don't think progressive boomers had much control over the antics of conservative boomers.
I think she meant the uber wealthy capitalist class? I tend to be moderate or classically liberal on the thorny economic questions, but it does seem like we haven't been able to replicate or continue for future generations the public investment and the social contract that the boomer generation thrived on. I think the boomers are finding that they're taking care of their kids for a lot longer than their own parents did? But those are other issues; what matters is that we need all hands on deck in this fight. It's so important for the younger generations to be as engaged as your generation is and not to become disillusioned and give up hope.
We are hearing more and more about OB/GYNS thinking about leaving anti abortion states. Who could blame them since they are unable to provide a reasonable standard of care to their patients and risk criminal charges in many instances. Some have left anti abortion states while others reconsidered and stayed citing the fact that, if they leave, there would be no one to care for their patients. As a former nurse practitioner I understand their position. But, here’s the thing- unless these state legislators and governors experience the repercussions of their actions they will simply continue enacting more and more restrictive abortion laws. They clearly don’t care what their constituents desire (reproductive rights) so perhaps they will respond to OB/GYNS leaving their state enmass.
I hope that's right, but honestly I'm not so sure. I think they're going to try to blame doctors for leaving (they're already blaming them for the horror stories coming out of these states)...but hopefully voters will see through it
I did a Tiktok about this last week and it’s one of my most viewed ever. You should read the comments, Jessica. It’s real, and people are feeling the lack of service already in a profound way. CRAZY.
There's certainly going to be a domino of catastrophes as a result of women being unable to find OBGYNs. Either women flee the state, birth rates will plummet or we start incurring unprecedented casualties. Either way, surely there will be a pretty big blow back on conservatives. They probably won't give a crap about maternal mortality but if infant mortality goes up, people will lose their shit.
Young white women of means will undoubtedly leave leaving just Black and brown people of less means. Certainly spells disaster for the Republican party.
A third of millennials evidently don't have nor will ever have children. Presumably Gen z is on track to make a similar decision. Anti-abortion laws have been in practice in Texas for over a year now and I haven't heard any news about a flood of babies inundating hospitals. Surely these republicans don't seriously think these laws are doing a damn thing except exacerbating the childlessness crisis by terrorizing women and doctors.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/30/opinions/whose-parents-rights-trump-desantis-gop-ziegler-cahn/index.html -- Opinion: From Michelangelo’s David to the 2024 presidential race, ‘parents’ rights’ are everywhereco-authored with Mary Ziegler) - Inspired, in part, by this amazing newsletter. Thank you!
Some time ago, I found this online about Georgia's abortion ban. It's a study in how the law was crafted, the arguments that were had around it, the debates, the sheer disregard for the medical community. Read it if you can. It's *how* this garbage becomes law. It's frightening.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/26410397.2019.1686201?cookieSet=1
From the article: "Credible scientific sources such as the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) were often misrepresented; reference to ACOG was sometimes coupled with falsehoods or otherwise inaccurate information. Supporters of HB 481 confounded existing medical science with their own new terminology such as “pregnancy viability” and “early infant” – vocabulary not defined or used within the field of medicine. For example, the term “pregnancy viability” does not appear in ACOG guidelines nor is it defined, while the term non-viable pregnancy does exist in the medical literatureCitation26; the terms “unborn child” and “early infant” are not in keeping with obstetric standards describing fetal development.Citation36"
I don't dare read it but I do know that doctors are educated, in science, and that science and education are two of the things that conservatives strongly oppose. So to them OBGYNs are the "enemy" and so it's not surprising.
Science and education are antithetical to the Word of God that only they coincidentally happen to have the power to speak for. If it were up to them, all women would be in a Quiverfull cult and just squat down in the kitchen every couple years to give birth. The way God commanded them to.
I just started reading it and it's already making me want to throw my phone at the wall.
"...an attempt to create a new class of persons – fetuses in utero – entitled to legal protection; and arguments to expand state protections for fetuses as a matter of state sovereignty and rights."
See. Like I pointed out, women are public property to these people. Touches on the theme from that salon article Jessica posted a while back on the historical precedent of equating women to land.
Why Women's Freedom Threatens Male Supremacy
https://www.salon.com/2022/10/23/abortion-and-authoritarianism-why-womens-freedom-threatens-male-supremacy/
I read that Salon article last time you recommended it to me. It's great. Enlightening. It helps me understand how women vote against their own self interest. The article above that I posted really outs the cavalier nature of how they crafted HB 481. Yeah they just don't even give a thought to the woman. There's no debate about us. We don't exist.
That's why I call it fetal coverture. It's literally about making us invisible. We're just an appliance to birth babies.
Joy Reid and Chris Hayes had good shows on MSNBC tonight. They led with Idaho's proposed legislation. Reid had on Melissa Murray, a law prof from NYU. She's been on before. She was saying what we've been fearing - that all these laws are meant to establish fetal personhood. That's what they're after. And she seemed to think a national ban (at fertilization, I think) was a serious possibility. It was depressing.
I think it would behoove every blue state to put in its constitution, 'A fetus is not a person', as a preemptive move.
I think a better way to put it is that fetuses don't have special privileges to other people's bodies that literally no one else has. Whether it has "personhood" is irrelevant. If anything, it makes the 13th amendment case to say that it is.
Well yes that would be more specific. My thought was they want to establish 'personhood' because that would presumably be the easiest shortcut to invalidating every law in pro-choice states protecting abortion rights, so I was keeping it simple. But yeah more specific is better.
But how would it invalidate other states laws? Even if it is a person, the state is literally saying women are chattel to their fetuses. It violates 13a.
Yeah, the problem is no one knows how courts would construe the 13th amendment nowadays. What's obvious to us doesn't seem to be to everyone.
Like I said yesterday, we need to start calling it fetal coverture because it's a legal fiction they invented to make women constitutionally invisible. Using the term fetal personhood gives it credibility. If fetuses have personhood, they're literally saying women are their chattel which directly violates the 13th amendment. But since fetuses are so-called "wards of the state," they're saying women are even less than chattel. They're public property.
Yes. We are instantly subjugated at conception. Instantly. Another question here with fetal personhood is the Census. Georgia would allow 6-week embryo counted on the Census. Now I know it's every 10 years but that raises the question of inequality between red and blue states in their population counts and resources.
That would be dumb considering a quarter of known pregnancies are miscarried.
Love Melissa! We're actually going to be on a panel together in April at NYU. And yes, she's totally right
Let us know when you are on the panel !
She also said something that I thought right when Roe fell -- there's no way that the fanatical right's "morality" will stop at state borders. They won't be satisfied with no abortion in WV but abortion in NJ. It was never about state's rights. That's a stepping stone argument. What on earth are our recourses? Expand the court? Move to NZ? Jessica you are doing heroic work!
The first line of defense is not to allow Republicans to get control outside of their red states. If there's another Republican president anytime soon the only option becomes blue states seceding.
Just read the Psychology Today piece. Of course, it's great. It's full of thoughtful, sane, researched, sourced, and studied material. Sadly it struck me as an intellectual trying to talk sense into a bully. I feel like it's too late. The crazy horse has left the barn. If these "local political leaders" feel no guilt about forcing a rape victim to give birth, you can forget them caring about the psychological harm on women who weren't raped.
The hope is that reasoned and respected pieces like this can encourage the healthcare community to get stronger in mounting pushback against this subjugation.
Mmm I think that's a really good point - the folks who need to be convinced the most never will be
Yes, I think the challenge is we need to get people who basically agree with us (especially when the facts are laid out in front of them) to care more.
i suspect that the Republican game plan is really about compelling White Women to bear white children but they can't figure out how to say that out loud.
what if we pro-choice multi-colored women call them on it.
YUPPPP
That is exactly what they're trying to do. Which is funny because white women are the least likely to get abortions who have higher usage of LTCs because of higher rates of insurance. If anything, it will just increase our childlessness rates even more. I'm definitely not gonna be having any white babies because of this fascist bull shit. My partner is brown anyway.
North Carolina lawmakers are also trying to change the state Senate, and end 1 person, 1 vote. Two counties, regardless of population, would elect a Senator. So Wake and Durham County could have a single vote in the NC Senate.
That's supposed to be illegal, but who knows what someone could convince the u.s. supreme court of these days.
It is so infuriating to me that there isn't more conversation about the attacks on democracy
North Carolina isn't THAT red; it's not Tennessee. Cooper would veto this legislation if it goes anywhere, and Republicans would be on record that this is their vision for the state. Register and turn out some new voters, flip a few others, and statewide elections could turn out differently. So why do it? Why are Republican legislators more afraid of the crazies than they are the rest of us? I really think that's what it comes down to. We have to do whatever is necessary to inspire fear. Playing nice doesn't work.
I think they're more afraid of the extremists because that's who is giving them money, tbh.
Maybe, but money is only important insofar as it keeps you in office (unless we're alleging direct payoffs), so the question is still what's the greatest threat to losing office. That they might fund a challenger?
I'm really surprised the stranglehold anti-abortion has over Republicans. They are def terrified of them. I had no idea it was this bad that they're willing to commit political suicide to ram these policies through.
But that’s just it--supporting these insane pieces of anti-woman legislation has not hurt them at all at the ballot box.
The midterms sure was an unexpected turn of events for them, though. And they haven't had a president that's won the popular vote since the 90s.
But that’s the “joy” of our wonderful electoral system. They don’t have to win a majority of the popular vote—not even close, in fact. Win the red states and that’s all they need.
They do have to be close, to elect a president. Not quite as close for the House (depending on how much the maps get mucked up by 2024), and they have a larger margin of error for the Senate. But even then if Democrats were to consistently win nationally by six or seven points we'd have the trifecta. That's the tragedy; Republicans have accomplished all of this by the skin of their teeth.
They're working to corrupt and control the electoral process, so they won't ever lose a vote, showing once again what b.s. it was when the "Supreme" Court said they were "sending abortion back to the states" so the people could decide. Ha! That's also why it's just dangerous to think we can rely on elections. It was political resistance that got us the right to abortion, and that's what it will take to regain it.
Yeah I agree, they're making it impossible for voters to have a say
It's not impossible; pro-choice voters just need to stop voting Republican, or they need to support pro-choice primary challengers. If that sounds ridiculous it's because it makes no sense for someone who's pro-choice to vote Republican in the first place. But they must be. Mike DeWine won Ohio by 25 points, but there'd be no point in a referendum there if we thought we were going to lose by 25 points. If these people continue to vote Republican then they really don't care about being pro-choice.
Same here. But I think for most of them the incentives are different. Most of them have safe seats and have learned the only political threat comes from more extreme primary challengers. It's bad for their party as a whole but that doesn't concern them. It would be even worse for them but for the features of our system that help conservatives (2 senators to each state, and single-member districts when geography helps their voters). Long run they're fucked. But we have to get there first before we have an actual, violent, civil war.
From that article on anti-abortion centers in Illinois:
"...the patient believed the center would also provide prenatal care.
“She received no prenatal care services throughout the duration of her pregnancy,” Swartzendruber said. “In fact, when she went to deliver, she drove herself to the emergency room.”
This is unbelievably enraging. This woman or her baby could have died. How the fuck does this even happen? They just thought they'd lead her on this whole time in case she got an abortion eight months into her pregnancy? And they didn't think to tell her at any point to go to a real doctor? What in the fuck is wrong with these people?
Time for a national boycott and strike. NC relied heavily on tourism.
This is like half the country at this point. Don't think it's possible to boycott half the country.
Well in that case boycott isn't quite the best word. More like (nonviolent) civil war and disruption.
Certainly getting to that point.
I live in NC and I am so sick to my stomach about this. I'm in my mid 40's and I have a 4 year old daughter - I had her late in life because it took me years to get pregnant. I can't even imagine right now if I were trying to get pregnant with the risks of pregnancy and miscarriages in a state with a total abortion ban. I'm also so terrified for my daughter's future.
I'm so sorry, Dana - I can't imagine how you feel today. That's terrifying.
Yeah I'll be forty next year and I was on the fence about having kids. Definitely not having them now. A third of millennials evidently don't have children and presumably Gen z is on track to make a similar decision as a consequence of psychopathic boomer policies that wrecked the economy. This isn't sustainable for the human race let alone civilization. But as long as they insist on weaponizing motherhood as a justice system, I don't see how that will change in the near future.
I made a TikTok the other day about how many women are deciding to forgo having kids because of the abortion bans and I cannot tell you how many comments I got - just story after story of people saying NOPE not gonna do it
Laura
I am in my 70’s and vote for liberals and when younger, worked for civil rights, including the right you have lost. How do you think Roe came about in the first place?
I have raised children who carry those beliefs, including an attorney who helps trans people.
I am doing what I can now, writing and donating to progressives. Older people are as diverse a group as any other. Please don’t stereotype us, getting old is hard enough.
My mother is in her 70s and she's more silent gen. I think your generation is more reasonable than the boomers. They came of reproductive age when Roe became law and then rescinded it as soon as they came into power after they exercised their rights. Silent gen still holds the collective memory of a dark time before reproductive rights.
Again, making assumptions about people based on age or other demographics is careless. For example, Ron Desantis is 42ish. Are all 42 year olds like minded?
BTW- my attorney mentioned above is 42.
I agree. But as I learned here be careful about antagonizing the boomers ;-) Anyway we need their help, they control most of the wealth.
Or we could just seize the means of production Bolshevik-style. These people are useless anyway.
And what, euthanize us useless boomers? 60 year old here & my friends and I are progressives who use our votes, volunteer time, and, yes, our money for progressive causes. We brought up our millennial kids to be progressive. Go to any progressive march or protest in DC and you’ll see a lot of us. Snarky attacks based on broad stereotypes are not useful.
I guess I should have been more specific I was referring to the owning class though they're predominantly 60 and over. 99% of boomers aren't included in this class. Boomers are mainly responsible for the rise of the extreme right beginning in the Reagan years but I don't think progressive boomers had much control over the antics of conservative boomers.
I think she meant the uber wealthy capitalist class? I tend to be moderate or classically liberal on the thorny economic questions, but it does seem like we haven't been able to replicate or continue for future generations the public investment and the social contract that the boomer generation thrived on. I think the boomers are finding that they're taking care of their kids for a lot longer than their own parents did? But those are other issues; what matters is that we need all hands on deck in this fight. It's so important for the younger generations to be as engaged as your generation is and not to become disillusioned and give up hope.
We are hearing more and more about OB/GYNS thinking about leaving anti abortion states. Who could blame them since they are unable to provide a reasonable standard of care to their patients and risk criminal charges in many instances. Some have left anti abortion states while others reconsidered and stayed citing the fact that, if they leave, there would be no one to care for their patients. As a former nurse practitioner I understand their position. But, here’s the thing- unless these state legislators and governors experience the repercussions of their actions they will simply continue enacting more and more restrictive abortion laws. They clearly don’t care what their constituents desire (reproductive rights) so perhaps they will respond to OB/GYNS leaving their state enmass.
I hope that's right, but honestly I'm not so sure. I think they're going to try to blame doctors for leaving (they're already blaming them for the horror stories coming out of these states)...but hopefully voters will see through it
I did a Tiktok about this last week and it’s one of my most viewed ever. You should read the comments, Jessica. It’s real, and people are feeling the lack of service already in a profound way. CRAZY.
Well regardless of who they blame the voters can't do anything about the doctors, so they'd have to focus on what they -can- change.
Sadly, I don’t think that they’ll care at all.
There's certainly going to be a domino of catastrophes as a result of women being unable to find OBGYNs. Either women flee the state, birth rates will plummet or we start incurring unprecedented casualties. Either way, surely there will be a pretty big blow back on conservatives. They probably won't give a crap about maternal mortality but if infant mortality goes up, people will lose their shit.
Maybe, maybe not. Or, maybe we will see the greatest population transfer in American history.
Young white women of means will undoubtedly leave leaving just Black and brown people of less means. Certainly spells disaster for the Republican party.
Exactly.
A third of millennials evidently don't have nor will ever have children. Presumably Gen z is on track to make a similar decision. Anti-abortion laws have been in practice in Texas for over a year now and I haven't heard any news about a flood of babies inundating hospitals. Surely these republicans don't seriously think these laws are doing a damn thing except exacerbating the childlessness crisis by terrorizing women and doctors.